Ok, I am moving to a Linux partition I set up and want to burn all my games/programs to ISO Images to back them up to avoid any losses when moving to Linux. So I need to know how to setup an ISO Image and if I can set up a CD Play Disc for those ISO Images.

why do you want iso images? i dont get it. just back up the apps you want to a cd. generally, linux can read cdfs. making these win32 apps run in linux is another thing altogther, and runge can help you with that. but there's no reason to make isos... that doesnt make much sense to me.

I need more details. First you cant take already installed programs and make installable ISO images out of them, second if you are simply making a system backup then use ghost to compress them and make a bootable set of disks. Nevertheless please clarify exactly what you wan't to do with these images.

"...I always tell my friends that if its in the news we dont have to worry about it because it rarely ever happens, thats what makes it news. Its when something is not in the news anymore that we have to start to worry" - Philip Greenspun

I want to make installation copies in preparation for my move to my new PC and easier redistribution to friends and I want fresh install copies of each software/game just in case I encounter system or software malfunction. I figured now was the time to do it. I also want to remove all my software/games off of the windows partition and get fresh new copies onto my Linux partition to put another road block on my family members messing with my stuff.

I am not sure if this is related but I want to make all my games to where you need a "play disc." I am using a family system at the moment and there are some games that I don't want my brothers playing.

I think before I started this I should have asked what an ISO is in detail because what I know about them is very vague.

Certain CDs just don't take well to copying the entire structure. That is, you can't copy a Windows XP CD to your hard drive and then copy all the folders into a new blank CD and expect it to boot. An ISO is a form of a CD image. It contains all the information for a compact disc in a single uncompressed file. Each disc made from the image will retain all the properties of the original, including label, bootability, etc. For what you're doing, just back stuff up onto Cds the normal way. Drag the install files for GTA, PSP, etc into a new data CD project and burn away. You don't have any use for ISOs this way.

As for creating a "play disc", if you're talking about making that an option for games you've stolen off of the internet, you're most likely out of luck, since pirated versions generally remove the disc requirement. If you want to prevent others from running the games, in XP you can just set file and folder permissions per user, locking out all other users from the game folder. I'm sure with Linux (and a starter's Linux box doesn't strike me as a family machine anyway) there are easier and more advanced options with the same effect that I know nothing about.

Okay I got it. Now if thats all in ISO is why did you have a big deal with it about Doom3? (if thats just a bit ignorant say so, I am really tired right now )

What I say in faimly machine is that my brothers do use it but the only people that can turn it on and get past the bios password is me and my mother. My mother is somewhat "techy" (she used to be tech support for Netwurks in Hartford) and knows what she is doing somewhat. Plus my mom wants to learn Linux so thats why we have it on this PC in the first place. My initial goal was to finish my PC and start Linux there.

Well, since an ISO is an image of a CD, who's sole purpose is to be used to recreate the original CD, using a CD to simply park an ISO file without actually using that file to make the CD seems extraneous and kind of stupid.... so that's that.

and no matter what you're running, you'll be able to lock out the folders.

if you're gung ho about linux but don't wanna jeopardize your only system, download phlak. it's a linux distro that boots from a cd. so when you're done, pop out the disc and you go back to windows, unaffected (this is great for public and school computers too, as you leave no trace of what you've done). granted, it's a limited experience compared to having a functional linux box, but it comes with a lot of tools and utilites (including firefox) and it's a safe start.

Storing files on a Unix based filesystem is not the way to prevent people from accessing it. You might as well burn them to CD and hide the CD's. Backups are good but I find that there is this nature of people who are going to install Linux prepare themselves like they are going to be going to war. Just install Linux, its that simple. If you understand the basics of partitioning then there is a 0% chance that anything will be destroyed. If you want to controll access to things a BIOS password is like killing a mosquito with a cannon ball, plus you give the user full access to the system after letting them on. I am still getting a handle on how to utilize permissions in Linux (actually its pretty simple, everything is represented by a file and you can controll anything by allowing/disallowing users access to any given file, but I still have a Windows mentality on user management that I need to break) What I would reccomend is using a multi user OS such as Windows 2000 or WIndows XP Pro, which you should be using anyway because the 9x kernel sucks balls. With either of these OS's you can setup group policy objects and local security settings to grant/deny permission to any given object in Windows giving you ultimate controll. For example, I once created some GPO's that were pushed down through Win2kServer that when a person logged in all they saw were 4 icons: Mozilla, My Documents (which was really mapped server space), MS Office, and their network drivespace. They couldnt execute ctrl+alt+del, use any shortcut keys to open "run" menu's, install new software, access any physical drive on the machine, etc...etc....you can do the same by giving the person nothing other than what they would use. You can also use event logger to notify you of any attempted access to unauthorized objects or unauthorized user accounts such as Administrator (which should be renamed anyway) keep logs at a minimum and watch them as much as possible (an admin is only as good as his logs). If you suceed, Congrats! you are now a system administrator! If you want to get an idea of what I want to do with my life multiply the effort put into that one box by 1,000 and throw in some manageable switches, routers, firewalls, web servers, mail servers, DNS and DHCP servers, print servers and file servers....and oh yeah 1,000's of people trying to use the network from the inside complaining when it doesn't work and 1,000's more trying to fuck up your network from the outside. Gee...I can't wait :]

By the way, the who ISO thing was me and Jeff discussing how silly proprietary CD image's are (such as .nrg or bin/cue) because if everyone used standards such as ISO then nobody would ever have to be forced to use "program X" to burn "image Y", if you read my posts at all you will realize how much I hate being forced to use any kind of software in the privacy of my own home.

"...I always tell my friends that if its in the news we dont have to worry about it because it rarely ever happens, thats what makes it news. Its when something is not in the news anymore that we have to start to worry" - Philip Greenspun

Yesterday me and nate dug around in our basement and found bunches of computer components to make a full PC. Granted it's not the best. Its only a 350 MHz with 256 MBs of RAM (Nate brought over some parts) needs a sound card a better monitor but its a start.

So far Linux is awesome. I started playing with it using KDE but after awhile I started playi ng with command line.

Today I am testing all the little tiny things that makes linux so nice (as nrunge was talking about) and loading some themes to it to make it resemble Mac OSX when I am playing in the GUI. So far Kopete seems to be my favorite little thing about it.

Kopete is cool. If you like desktop modifications/eyecandy check out SuperKaramba and head over to kde-look.org for wallpaper/icons, whatever. kde-apps.org doesnt have much but its an OK site for applications, I use a program called Kmymoney2 to organize my finances, it works really well. Very simple. Also I would give Gnome a chance, I dont use it because I like to fiddle a bit more than Gnome allows but it is pure eyecandy.

"...I always tell my friends that if its in the news we dont have to worry about it because it rarely ever happens, thats what makes it news. Its when something is not in the news anymore that we have to start to worry" - Philip Greenspun

Heh. I have to say that I like a bit of eye candy myself. Although I dont currently clutter my desktop with lots of Karamba stuff and I have yet to find a replacement for KDE's kicker. The OSX "docker" clones just arent configurable enough for me.

"...I always tell my friends that if its in the news we dont have to worry about it because it rarely ever happens, thats what makes it news. Its when something is not in the news anymore that we have to start to worry" - Philip Greenspun